Relations with Government Sweden

Projekt inom DPPT: Securing psychoanalysis in
the public health sector

Ingrid Häggarth

Summary
When you shall make a summary report of the position of psychoanalysis and
the psychodynamic therapy in Sweden to day a multifaceted picture appears.
There are parallel processes which both support (The Swedish National Agency
for Higher Education) and work against (The Swedish National Institute of
Health) the role of psychoanalysis. It concerns both knowledge and changing
views in the psychiatric profession but also changed economic rules. There
are also other current outlooks, which influence the picture.
Concerning the changed outlook within the profession there is probably the
always existing conflict between the biological and the humanistic view, and
the structural change which has occurred because of the reforms within the
healthcare in Sweden has led to that psychiatrists with psychoanalytical and
psychodynamic knowledge have fled the public sector, and the psychiatrists
remaining have a different conception/opinion which then has got an
increased importance.
There is also the widening scope of the neuropsychiatric conditions and the
emergence of new groups of patients.
The whole psychiatric field has got a bias toward neuroscience and
neuropsychiatry.
There are a number of possible/necessary actions to improve the situation:
The most important must be to get a representative within The Swedish
National Agency where guidelines for different treatment methods are
developed. We have to demand that an independent panel of experts is put
together when new guide lines are formulated.